Elmo Tanner

Elmo Tanner
Elmo Tanner circa 1940s - 1950s.
Background information
Birth name	William Elmo Tanner
Born	(1904-08-08)August 8, 1904 Nashville, Tennessee
Died	December 20, 1990(1990-12-20) (aged 86) St. Petersburg, Florida
Genres	Big Band, Easy Listening, Traditional pop music
Occupation(s)	Singer, Whistler, DJ
Years active	Late 1920s – early 1960s
Associated acts	Ted Weems, Perry Como
Notable instruments
Washboard

William Elmo Tanner, known as Elmo Tanner (August 8, 1904 – December 20, 1990) was an American whistler, singer, bandleader and disc jockey, best known for his whistling on the chart-topping song “Heartaches” with the Ted Weems Orchestra. Tanner and Weems recorded the song for two different record companies within a period of five years. Neither recording was successful originally. The song became a hit for both record companies after a Charlotte, North Carolina disk jockey played it at random in 1947.

Tanner was originally hired by Weems as a vocalist; the bandleader discovered Tanner's whistling ability while the band was traveling to an engagement. Like Bing Crosby, he was able to whistle from his throat due to the muscles in his larynx. He subsequently became a featured performer as a whistler, earning the nicknames "Whistler’s Mother’s Boy", "The Whistling Troubador," and "the nation’s best-known whistler". He began appearing in films as part of the Ted Weems Orchestra in 1936; his first film role was in The Hatfields and McCoys, and he later appeared in the movie Swing, Sister, Swing (1938) and the musical film short, Swing Frolic (1942). Weems considered Tanner's whistling important enough to his orchestra that in 1939 he insured Tanner's throat for $10,000. Besides musical whistling, he also imitated birds for Disney.

After a failed attempt at running a restaurant in his native Nashville in the early 1950s, he toured with the Elmo Tanner Quartet until 1958, when he found work as a disc jockey in Florida. After working as an auto dealer in the 1960s, in the early 1970s he resumed musical activity, singing with a St. Petersburg, Florida-based quartet.

Tanner was born on August 8, 1904 in Nashville, Tennessee. He grew up in Detroit, and moved to Memphis with his family by 1926. As a young boy, Tanner studied the violin and was successful with it until eye trouble made it difficult for him to read notes. His musical training helped Tanner to develop the ability to scan music or lyrics quickly and then either sing or whistle what he had just read. On his walk home from work, Tanner passed a cemetery each night and started whistling as he passed by. Not everyone appreciated Tanner's whistling in the evening; he was once jailed in Albuquerque, New Mexico for whistling after 10pm. A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Tanner raced automobiles and worked as a mechanic in Memphis. While performing the duties of his employment he liked to whistle and sing. One day in 1928, he had a repair job for a customer who happened to work at WMC radio. After hearing Tanner singing while working on his car, the announcer suggested Tanner audition for the radio station. His consequent on-air appearance brought a call from Paramount Records, which had offices in Chicago.